When Edith and I relocated from our home in Pietermaritzburg to Howick at the end of 2021, we started the journey by spending the last two weeks of November staying in the big house at Lemonwood Cottages in the Dargle Valley. That stay was punctuated by some excellent walks, summiting Nhlosane, beautiful sunsets, and one spectacular thunder storm.

We then settled down in the Ambers in the last house in the lane that was at the the bottom of a hill, and also overlooked the Game Area. During the year that we spent there we experienced Zebras at the windows, beautiful sunrises, and several spectacular thunder storms. At the end of that year spent patiently waiting, we finally moved into our new home in Pincushion Lane in Protea Gardens.

It did not take long and we once more experienced some spectacular thunder storms. Two of those storms were accompanied by exceptional heavy rainfall and strong winds. The wind strength for one of those storms was was mini-tornado strength. It lifted some Chromadek roof sheets from the row of cottages being constructed in the lane above Pincushion (know known as Queen Protea Lane), and dumped them in Pincushion Lane. One of these Chromadek roofing sheets bounced in Pincushion Lane, and then smashed into a bedroom window, demolishing the window frame and shattering the glass panes.

The storm that I heard and saw approaching a couple of days ago reminded me of those storms. Fortunately it was not as bad, 20 mm of rain in twenty minutes and wind gust close to 60 kph. The two images included below show that, and also how the atmospheric pressure changed radically as the storm approached. One of the best examples I have seen of this behaviour since I started running a weather station. Also interesting was that the storm came down the Corries Post Ridge. The others had come from the exact opposite direction.

The aftermath of the storm that occured on 20211208 was so impressive (not so sure that that is the correct word), that I went out side and recorded a short video showing what it left behind. You will find three distinct links to the video below. The videos run for about one and a half minute and the sizes of each of the videos is shown in order to indicate how much bandwidth use you will use should you choose to view one of the videos.

The Muddy Road Videos

• Original - 181.5 MB
• Reduced - 80.4 MB

The Wind

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